On October 26, 2001, just under twelve years ago, a panicked Congress passed an ill-advised, hastily considered “USA PATRIOT” Act by lopsided margins — 357-66 in the House, 98-1 in the Senate. As its many opponents outside the Capitol Building warned, the “PATRIOT” Act was anything but: it became a Congressional blank check to surveill and harass all too many Americans, and undermine the very freedoms we claim to value.

Twelve years later, the tide is turning — thanks to whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, Thomas Tamm, Thomas Drake, and journalists like Glenn Greenwald. Yes, the revelations of NSA’s dragnet surveillance, deception of Congress, and what amounts to sabotage of the Internet and its standards are sobering even to those who’ve followed the story for years. But the broad public and even congressional revulsion at NSA behavior signal the secret agency’s long, wild, unconstitutional ride is over.

The momentum is on our side — and *this* October 26th, twelve years after the “PATRIOT” Act, we urgently ask for and need your help to convert that into a victory for the freedoms all Americans treasure — freedom from unwarranted search and seizure, freedom of speech, expectation of due process: